Remix

Two years ago, my friend Stephanie and I embarked upon a baking adventure (read about it here) where we attempted to make one Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) baked good a week. Our very first week we made Beatty's Chocolate Cake .

At that point in my life had never baked a cake from scratch before and to be honest, I didn't think it would be that different from a box mix- mostly because I was anticipating a complete disaster.

We somehow managed to bake Beatty's Chocolate Cake to perfection. It was the best cake I had ever tasted. The downside to it was that it took quite a bit more time than a box mix.

_____

Last week, thanks to grad school, I was running short on time. So for my friend Jalah's birthday cupcakes I cheated (sorry Jalah!).

I took a standard box mix of cake...I think I used Pillsbury's Devil's Food Cake... But instead of putting in 1 and 1/4 cups water that it called for, I put in 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee and 1/4 cup of water in hopes of bringing out the chocolate flavor.

I then whipped up a batch of chocolate buttercream frosting to go on top of it.

Overall they tasted pretty good. But I think one day this summer is going to be devoted to creating a bunch of my own box mixes of Beatty's Chocolate Cake, so I'm ready to roll at a moments notice. It really is THAT much better.

Back to School Finds: July 22-28

Fred Meyer

Ticonderoga Pencils: Just about the only pencils you should buy- they sharpen quickly and last a long time
Coupon: 24 pack Buy 1 Get 1

Avery Binders: Quality
Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price

Crayola Crayons: Best out there
$0.39 a box- I just scored 4 for my classroom

2 Pocket Folder $0.15 - Hold off on it- they usually sell them for a penny later in the summer.

Oxford Notecards- perfect for speeches!
$0.45

Binder Dividers
$1

6 Pack- Papermate Highlighters
$1


Target

Crayola Colored Pencils: The best around
$0.99- this is about as low as they go folks

Elmer's Glue sticks 6 pack
$0.99

Staples (Thanks, Jenn!)

5 Pack Sharpie Highlighters
$0.50- These babies don't smear and I love them!

Cap Erasers
$0.01!!!

Notecards
$0.01!!!

Post-it Dicut Notes
$1- Super cute shapes!

Sticky Note Flags
$0.25

Lysol Wipes
$2 - I wish these were on our supply lists..

Clipboard
$1 - So kids can work around the room in places other than their desks

Happy shopping!

Birthday Cupcake Toppers

One of my favorite people, Jalah, celebrated her birthday this past week. I decided to help her kick off the celebration in our grad school class by surprising her with cupcakes (more on those in a later blog post).

Cupcakes are pretty much the most delicious things around, and they are already pretty cute. But since you can have cupcakes on any old day, I thought Jalah's birthday cupcakes needed a little something extra.

In the past I have used stickers or foam cut outs on toothpicks to create easy cupcake toppers, but this time (with NO help from pinterest I might add) I decided to step up my game.

I started by typing up "Happy birthday!" TAB "Happy birthday!" ENTER as many times I could get it to fit onto one page. Then I picked a cute, but readable font and printed it.

Then I measured roughly a quarter of an inch out from each side of the "Happy birthday!" lines to mark how long I wanted them to be.

I then cut out on the pencilled lines and then cut between my "Happy birthday!" rows until they were just the perfect width. Next I folded those in half so that they could be glued on to fancy scrapbook paper.

I cut the fancy scrapbook paper to a desired width in strips.

Then I folded each in half and laid the "Happy birthday!" print over the fold to determine how long the scrapbook paper needed to be. Once I found my desired length I chopped into it forming a "v" to make a cute banner like look.

After this, I glued the "Happy birthday!" onto the scrapbook paper. Then the scrapbook paper to the top of a toothpick and laid it out to dry.

Back to School Finds: July 15-21

Back to school shopping is easily one of my favorite parts of the year. I love finding good deals for my classroom and students. Over the next month or two I will be sharing some of my favorite back to school deals on my blog. Here are the ones for this week. Happy shopping!

Fred Meyer

Scotch 5" Kid's Scissors for $0.99

** As a teacher, I always keep 3 small supply boxes for kids who need to borrow them- scissors are essential! I'm going to score 3 more pairs because ours have disappeared.

Binders: Buy 1 get 1 Free

Post-it Notes for $0.99

** Endlessly useful- this is a good deal. I love using mine in the classroom for "Parking Lots" and quick informal assessments. If you use them a lot, it's totally worth it to check out the monster packs at Costco.

150 Sheets of Filler Paper for $0.75

** I keep a class supply on hand at all time because we always seem to run out. This past year I scored a giant box of it for $5 at Goodwill. Love that place.

Spiral Notebooks 5 for $1

**You should wait on these- FM usually runs a 10 for $1 later in the summer. I purchase three colors for each of my kids and color code each subject. I'm only a little OCD.



Office Max

Just Basics Ball Point Pens for $0.25 a pack

** These pens come in blue, black and red. I always like to have a pack or two of these on hand to keep them in my "Pen" drawer for my students to use when they need.

Purell Mini Hand Sanitizer $0.10

** Love these minis! They are perfect for a purse, backpack, lunch bag, or whatever!



Target

3 Shelf Book Case for $14.99 after coupon

**Perfect for storing books in your classroom or home library! I have way too many books that I have loved from my undergrad and grad courses :)

ClosetMaid 6-Cube Wire Shelving for $19.99

When backpacks are stored on the backs of chairs it becomes difficult to move smoothly around the classroom. I decided to buy 5 sets of these and connect them for backpack and coat storage. Last year I added black dish pans so they could easily slide their stuff in and out.

Sewing: Coffee Cozy

Have I told you how much I LOVE pinterest? Since I joined last summer, I have had a lot of fun testing out new ideas. One of my super favorite finds was the coffee cozy via. It was really easy to make and was a great way to use up fabric scraps (which apparently I have way too many of). The creator designed an easy to follow and accurate pattern- which is sometimes hard to find on the internet. :)

Crafty Clipboards

To say I have an obsession with the website Pinterest, is a slight understatement. I love looking at all of the neat ideas on there AND being able to "pin" them to a spot where I can find them easily. Translation: I am able to remember exactly what they are because I have space to write a comment and see a photo.

Anyways, I was inspired by the Quick Clipboard Facelift done by Create Studio (check out their blog post HERE).

Here are the steps I took to beautify my clipboards:
1. Choose cute scrapbook paper
2. Lay your clipboard on top of the paper and use pencil to lightly trace around the edges.
3. Cut on the inside of your traced lines (You don't want to have excess, its a super huge pain to fix later in the process).


4. If the paper is going on the front, use a ruler to measure how far in and deep the clip goes so that the paper fits nicely around it.
5. Use Mod Podge, or something like it, and put a coat directly on to the clipboard.



6. Carefully place your cut scrapbooking paper onto the clipboard and use a food scraper to smooth out all of the bubbles.
7. Let it sit for a little while, and put another coat of Mod Podge of top of the scrapbooking paper to seal it all in.
8. Do both sides and let dry.



And there you have it, cute clipboards :)

Again, all images on this page are property of me, if you'd like to use them give me some credit :)

San Fran.

This summer has been approximately a million times fun, partly because I did neat things like travel (WHAT?). My adventuring took me down to San Fran.

I suppose I should start with I really don't like to fly, especially not by myself. But I did it, all the way to San Francisco (a whopping two hour flight). During the flight I mostly felt like I was super cool, I wasn't stressing out AND I was reading my favorite magazine (Real Simple) After we began our descent into San Fran, and were nearly to the ground, the pilot hooked the plane to the right, causing my to grab ahold of anything that was in my reach (fortunately there was no one sitting next to me). Once things got straightened out and the wheels were touching down, the guy behind me, loudly, says "MAN! If we would have been lower we would be a giant ball of fire right now." Naturally, I thought "NEAT!" not. (Remember this story for later blog post).

Anyways, I arrived in one piece to San Francisco, where I met my parents and our Austrian friends.

Here is a list of things that we did:

1. Chinese Food in Chinatown - super tasty.
2. Walked a ton, like seriously, everywhere.
3. Took a ferry out to Alcatraz
4. Did the audio guide tour of the island and its buildings- This part was probably my favorite part of the trip. It was super fascinating to walk around the place and learn about it.
5. While I was there, I bought a sign of Alcatraz's Regulation #30 to put in my classroom CLICK HERE. I bought it because I'm going to tell them about Alcatraz and do a related read aloud. I also purchased it because my students and coworkers know that our classroom does not follow this regulation, because loud learning is fun.
6. We went downtown and saw people climbing down the side of a super tall hotel for a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.

See them way up there?
7. We also adventured to the top of this hotel and took in some gorgeous views of the city.
8. Visited the Cable Car museum and learned how they work (SO NEAT).
9. Visited Ghiradelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf

Overall, it was a pretty epic trip, I love San Francisco and can't wait to go visit again!

Peace.

p.s. All images on this page are property of me, if you want to use them please ask and give me credit.